KANT'S PROLEGOMENA TO ANY FUTURE METAPHYSICS EDITED IN ENGLISH DR. PAUL CARUS WITH AN ESSAY ON KANT'S PHILOSOPHY, AND OTHER SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL FOR THE STUDY OF KANT CHICAGO THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY LONDON Kegah Paul, Trehch, Trubnbr & Co., Ltd. igoz
TRANSLATION COPYRIGHTED BY The Open Court Publishing Co. igo2.
TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Kant's Prolegomena 1-163 Essay on Kant's Philosophy by Dr. Paul Cams. (With Portraits of Kant and Garve) 167-240 Supplementary Materials for the Study of Kant's Life and Philosophy Introductory Note 243 Kant's Life and Writings. (After Windelband) 245 The Critique of Practical Reason and the Critique of Judgment. (After Weber) 250 Kant's Views on Religion. (After Schwegler) 258 Kant and Materialism. (After Lange) 261 Kant and Deism. (After Heinrich Heine.) With Facsimile of the Title-page of the Critique of Pure Reason 264 The Kantian Philosophy. (After Arthur Schopenhauer) 279 Hostile. Estimate of Kant by a Swedenborgian. (After Theodore F. Wright) 283 Facsimile and Translation of a Letter of Kant to His Brother 285 Chronology of Kant's Life and Publications. (After Paulsen) 287 Index to Kant's Prolegomena 293 Index to the Article on Kant's Philosophy 299
Io6 KANT'S PROLEGOMENA. Antithesis. The World is, as to Time and Space, infinite. 2. Thesis. Everything in the World consists of [elements that are] simple. Antithesis. There is nothing simple, but everything is composite. 3- Thesis. There are in the World Causes through Freedom. Antithesis. There is no Liberty, but all is Nature. 4- T?iesis. In the Series of the World-Causes there is some necessary Being. Antithesis. There is Nothing necessary in the World, but in this Series All is incidental. 52. a. Here is the most singular phenomenon of human reason, no other instance of which can be shown in any other use. If we, as is commonly done, represent to ourselves the appearances of the sensible world as things in themselves, if we assume the principles of their combination as principles universally valid of things in themselves and not merely of experience, as is usually, nay without our Critique, unavoidably done, there arises an unexpected conflict, which never can be removed in the common dogmatical way ; because the thesis, as well as the antithesis, can be shown by equally clear, evident, and irresist-
HOW IS METAPHYSICS IN GE.«RAL POSSIBLE? I07 ible proofs for I pledge myself as to the correctness of all these proofs and reason therefore perceives that it is divided with itself, a state at which the sceptic rejoices, but which must make the critical philosopher pause and feel ill at ease. 52. b. We may blunder in various ways in metaphysics without any fear of being detected in falsehood. For we never can be refuted by experience if we but avoid self-contradiction, which in synthetical, though purely fictitious propositions, may be done whenever the concepts, which we connect, are mere ideas, that cannot be given (in their whole content) in experience. For how can we make out by experience, whether the world is from eternity or had a beginning, whether matter is infinitely divisible or consists of simple parts? Such concept cannot be given in any experience, be it ever so extensive, and consequently the falsehood either of the positive or the negative proposition cannot be discovered by this touch-stone. The only possible way in which reason could have revealed unintentionally its secret Dialectics, falsely announced as Dogmatics, would be when it were made to ground an assertion upon a universally admitted principle, and to deduce the exact contrary with the greatest accuracy of inference from another which is equally granted. This is actually here the case with regard to four natural ideas of reason, whence four assertions on the one side, and as many counter-assertions on the other arise, each consistently following from universally-acknowledged principles. Thus they reveal by the use of these principles the dialectical illusion of pure reason which would otherwise forever remain concealed.
io8 rant's prolegomena. This is therefore a decisive experiment, which must necessarily expose any error lying hidden in the assumptions of reason.* Contradictory propositions cannot both be false, except the concept, which is the subject of both, is self-contradictory; for example, the propositions, "a square circle is round, and a square circle is not round," are both false. For, as to the former it is false, that the circle is round, because it is quadrangular J and it is likewise false, that it is not round, that is, angular, because it is a circle. For the logical criterion of the impossibility of a concept consists in this, that if we presuppose it, two contradictory propositions both become false ; consequently, as no middle between them is conceivable, nothing at all is thought by that concept. 52. c. The first two antinomies, which I call mathematical, because they are concerned with the addition or division of the homogeneous, are founded on such a self-contradictory concept ; and hence I explain how it happens, that both the Thesis and Antithesis of the two are false. When I speak of objects in time and in space, it is not of things in themselves, of which I know nothing, but of things in appearance, that is, of experience, as the particular way of cognising objects which is afforded to man. I must not say of what I think in time or in space, that in itself, and independent of 1 1 therefore would be pleased to have the critical reader to devote to this antinomy of pure reason his chief attention, because nature itself seems to have established it with a view to stagger reason in its daring pretentions, and to force it to self-examination. For every proof, which 1 have given, as well of the thesis as of the antithesis, I undertake tq be responsible, and thereby to show the certainty of the inevitable antinomy of reason. When the reader is brought by this curious phenomenon to fall back upon the proof of the presumption upon which it rests, he will feel himself obliged to investigate the ultimate foundation of all the cognition of pure reason with me more thoroughly.
HOW IS METAPHYSICS IN GENERAL POSSIBLE? log these my thoughts, it exists in space and in time ; in that case I should contradict myself ; because space and time, together with the appearances in them, are nothing existing in themselves and outside of my representations, but are themselves only modes of representation, and it is palpably contradictory to say, that a mere mode of representation exists without our representation. Objects of the senses therefore exist only in experience ; whereas to give them a self-subsisting existence apart from experience or before it, is merely to represent to ourselves that experience actually exists apart from experience or before it. Now if I inquire after the quantity of the world, as to space and time, it is equally impossible, as regards all my notions, to declare it infinite or to declare it finite. For neither assertion can be contained in experience, because experience either of an infinite space, or of an infinite time elapsed, or again, of the boundary of the world by a void space, or by an antecedent void time, is impossible ; these are mere ideas. This quantity of the world, which is determined in either way, should therefore exist in the world itself apart from all experience. This contradicts the notion of a world of sense, which is merely a complex of the appearances whose existence and connexion occur only in our representations, that is, in experience, since this latter is not an -object in itself, but a mere mode of representation. Hence it follows, that as the concept of an absolutely existing world of sense is self-contradictory, the solution of the problem concerning its quantity, whether attempted affirmatively or negatively, is always false. The same holds good of the second antinomy, which relates to the division of phenomena. For these for
no KANT S PROLEGOMENA. are mere representations, and the parts exist merely in their representation, consequently in the division, or in a possible experience where they are given, and the division reaches only as far as this latter reaches. To assume that an appearance, e. g., that of body, contains in itself before all experience all the parts, which any possible experience can ever reach, is to impute to a mere appearance, which can exist only in experience, an existence previous to experience. In other words, it would mean that mere representations exist before they can be found in our faculty of representation. Such an assertion is self-contradictory, as also every solution of our misunderstood problem, whether we maintain, that bodies in themselves consist of an infinite number of parts, or of a finite number of simple parts. 53. In the first (the mathematical) class of antinomies the falsehood of the assumption consists in representing in one concept something self-contradictory as if it were compatible (i. e., an appearance as an object in itself). But, as to the second (the dynamical) class of antinomies, the falsehood of the representation consists in representing as contradictory what is compatible ; so that, as in the former case, the opposed assertions are both false, in this case, on the other hand, where they are opposed to one another by mere misunderstanding, they may both be true. Any mathematical connexion necessarily presupposes homogeneity of what is connected (in the concept of magnitude), while the dynamical one by no means requires the same. When we have to deal with extended magnitudes, all the parts must be homogeneous with one another and with the whole ; whereas,
HOW IS METAPHYSICS IN GENERAL POSSIBLE? Ill in the connexion of cause and effect, homogeneity may indeed likewise be found, but is not necessary for the concept of causality (by means of which something is posited through something else quite different from it), at all events, does not require it. If the objects of the world of sense are taken for thrn'gs~1n~t1iem"selves7"ananffie above" laws of nature for ITTe Taws of things in themselves, thecontradiction wout3~ee unavoidable. So also, if the subject of freedom were, like other objects, represented as mere apjpearance, the contradiction would be just as unavoid- able, for the same predicate woiird~at'once be affirmed " and~d"enred of the same kind ^f object in the same ^255: But if natural necessity is referred merely to jappearances, and freedom merely to things_in themselves, no contradiction arises, if we at once assume, or admit both kinds of causality, however difbcult or impossible it may be_lg.,inak,ejfaajajiterjdnd-concejv- Sable. As appearance every effect is an event, or something that happens in time ; universal law of it must, according to the nature, be preceded by a determination of the causality of its cause (a state), which follows according to a constant law. But this determination of the cause as causality must likewise be something that takes place or happens ; the cause must have begun to act, otherwise no succession between it and the effect could be conceived. Otherwise the effect, as well as the causality of the cause, would have always existed. Therefore the determination of the cause to act must also have originated among appearances, and must consequently, as well be an event, which must again have its as its effect, cause, and so on ; hence natural necessity must be
112 KANT'S PROLEGOMENA. the condition, on which effective causes are deteristnedr Whereas 11 freedom is to be a prop_er_ty of "ceftarn"causes of appearances, it must, as regards tkese7~which are events, be a faculty of starting them spontaneously, That is, without the causality of the cause itself, and hence without requiring any other ground to determine its start. But then the cause, as to its causality, must not rank under time-determinations of its state, that is, it cannot be an appearance, and must be considered a thing in itself, -while its effects would be only appearances. ^ If without contradiction we can think of the beings of understanding [^Versiandeswesen'] as exercising such an influence on appearances, then natural necessity will attach to all connexions of cause and effect in the sensuous world, though on the other hand, freedom can be granted to such cause, as is itself not an appearance (but the foundation of appearance). Nature therefore and freedom can without contradiction _be atfributed to the very same thing, but iji^ different re- -Stion's^^^on"~one~side~as a phenomenon, on the nthp.r ias_ajth}ngj.nitself. We have in us a faculty, which riot only stands in IThe idea of freedom occurs only in the relation of the intellectual, as cau&e, to the appearance, as effect. Hence we cannot attribute freedom to matter in regard to the incessant action by which it fills its space, though this action takes place from an internal principle. We can likewise find no notion of freedom suitable to purely rational beings, for instance, to God, so far as his action is immanent. For his action, though independent of external determining causes, is determined in his eternal reason, that is, in the divine nature. It is only, if something is to start by an action, and so the effect occurs in the sequence of time, or in the world of sense (e. g., the beginning of the world], that we can put the question, whether the causality of the cause must in its turn have been started, or whether the cause can originate an effect without its causality itself beginning. In the former case the concept of this causality is a concept of natural necessity, in the latter, that of freedom. From this the reader will see, that, as I explained freedom to be the faculty of starting an event spontaneously, I have exactly hit the notion which is the problem of metaphysics.
HOW IS METAPHYSICS IN GENERAL POSSIBLE? II3 connexion with its subjective determining grounds that are the natural causes of its actions, and is so far the faculty of a being that itself belongs to appearances, but is also referred to objective grounds, that are only ideas, so far as they can determine this faculty, a connexion which is expressed by the word ought. This faculty is called reason, and, so far as we consider a being (man) entirely according to this objectively determinable reason, he cannot be considered as a being of sensejljut this property is that of a thing in itself, of which we cannot comprehend the possibility I mean how the ought (which however has never yet taken place) should determine its activity, and can become the cause of actions, whose effect is an appearance in the sensible world. Yet the causality of reason would be freedom with regard to the effects in the sensuous world, so far as we can consider objective grounds, which are themselves ideas, as their determinants. For its action in that case would not depend upon subjective conditions, consequently not upon those of time, and of course not upon the law of nature, which serves to determine them, because grounds of reason give to actions the rule universally, according to principles, without the influence of the circumstances of either time or place. What I adduce here is merely meant as an example to make the thing intelligible, and does not necessarily belong to our problem, which must be decided from mere concepts, independently of the properties which we meet in the actual world. Now I may say without contradiction : that all the actions of rational beings, so far as they are appearances (occurring in any experience), are subject to the necessity of nature ; but the same actions, as re-
114 KANT S PROLEGOMENA. gards merely the rational subject and its faculty of acting according to mere reason, are free. For what is required for the necessity of nature? Nothing more than the determinability of every event in the world of sense according to constant laws, that is, a reference to cause in the appearance ; in this process the thing in itself at its foundation and its causality remain unknown. But I say, that the law of nature remains, whether the rational being is the cause of the effects in the sensuous world from reason, that is, through freedom, or whether it does not determine them on grounds of reason. For, if the former is the case, the action is performed according to maxims, the effect of which as appearance is always conformable to constant laws ; if the latter is the case, and the action not performed on principles of reason, it is subjected to the empirical laws of the sensibility, and in both cases the effects are connected according to constant laws ; more than this we do not require or know concerning natural necessity. But in the former case reason is the cause of these laws of nature, and therefore free ; in the latter the effects follow according to mere natural laws of sensibility, because reason does not influence it ; but reason itself is not determined on that account by the sensibility, and is therefore free in this case too. Freedom is therefore no hindrance to natural law in appearance, neither does this law abrogate the freedom of the practical use of reason, which is connected with things in themselves, as determining grounds. Thus practical freedom, viz., the freedom in which reason possesses causality according to objectively determining grounds, is rescued and yet natural necessity is not in the least curtailed with regard to the
HOW IS METAPHYSICS IN GENERAL POSSIBLE? II5 very same effects, as appearances. The same remarks will serve to explain what we had to say concerning transcendental freedom and its compatibility with natural necessity (in the same subject, but not taken in the same reference). For, as to this, every beginning of the action of a being from objective causes regarded as determining grounds, is always a first start, though the same action is in the series of appearances only a subordinate start, which must be preceded by a state of the cause, which determines it, and is itself determined in the same manner by another immediately preceding. Thus we are able, in rational beings, or in beings generally, so far as their causality is determined in them as things in themselves, to imagine a faculty of beginning from itself a series of states, without falling into contradiction with the laws of nature. For the relation of the action to objective grounds of reason is not a time-relation ; in this case that which determines the causality does not precede in time the action, because such determining grounds represent not a reference to objects of sense, e. g., to causes in the appearances, but to determining causes, as things in themselves, which do not rank under conditions of time. And in this way the action, with regard to the causality of reason, can be considered as a first start in respect to the series of appearances, and yet also as a merely subordinate beginning. We may therefore without contradiction consider it in the former aspect as free, but in the merely appearance) as subject latter (in so far as it is to natural necessity. As to the fourth Antinomy, it is solved in the same way as the conflict of reason with itself in the third. For, provided the cause in the appearance is distin-
Il6 rant's PROLEGOMENA. guished from the cause o/the appearance (so far as it can be thought as a thing in itself), both propositions are perfectly reconcilable : the one, that there is nowhere in the sensuous world a cause (according to similar laws of causality), whose existence is absolutely necessary ; the other, that this world is nevertheless connected with a Necessary Being as its cause (but of another kind and according to another law). The incompatibility of these propositions entirely rests upon the mistake of extending what is valid merely of appearances to things in themselves, and in general confusing both in one concept. 54. This then is the proposition and this the solution of the whole antinomy, in which reason finds itself involved in the application of its principles to the sensible world. The former alone (the mere proposition) would be a considerable service in the cause of our knowledge of human reason, even though the solution might fail to fully satisfy the reader, who has here to combat a natural illusion, which has been but recently exposed to him, and which he had hitherto always regarded as genuine. For one result at least is unavoidable. As it is quite impossible to prevent this conflict of reason with itself so long as the objects of the sensible world are taken for things in themselves, and not for mere appearances, which they are in fact the reader is thereby compelled to examine over again the deduction of all our a priori cognition and the proof which I have given of my deduction in order to come to a decision on the question. This is all I require at present ; for when in this occupation he shall have thought himself deep enough into the nature of pure reason, those concepts by which alone the solution of the conflict of reason is
HOW IS METAPHYSICS IN GENERAL POSSIBLE? II7 possible, will become sufficiently familiar to him. Without this preparation I cannot expect an unreserved assent even from the most attentive reader. III. The Theological Ideay 55. The third transcendental Idea, which affords matter for the most important, but, if pursued only speculatively, transcendent and thereby dialectical use of reason, is the ideal of pure reason. Reason in this case does not, as with the psychological and the cosmological Ideas, begin from experience, and err by exaggerating its grounds, in striving to attain, if possible, the absolute completeness of their series. It rather totally breaks with experience, and from mere concepts of what constitutes the absolute completeness of a thing in general, consequently by means of the idea of a most perfect primal Being, it proceeds to determine the possibility and therefore t^e actuality of all other things. And so the mere presupposition of a Being, who is conceived not in the series of experience, yet for the purposes of experience for the sake of comprehending its connexion, order, and unity i. e., the idea [the notion of it], is more easily distinguished from the concept of the understanding here, than in the former cases. Hence we can easily expose the dialectical illusion which arises from our making the subjective conditions of our thinking objective conditions of objects themselves, and an hypothesis necessary for the satisfaction of our reason, a dogma. As the observations of the Critique on the pretensions of transcendental theology are intelligible, clear, and decisive, I have nothing more to add on the subject. let. Critique, the chapter on "Transcendental Ideals.**